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Tag: fetish

Editor’s note: the following article contains graphic descriptions of sexual activity. If you’re easily offended or under 18, please cease reading this article and read this one instead.

Have you ever wondered what is happening in Tokyo at night? And what is the meaning of “Happening Bar”? Have you ever been curious what all the fun is about? Why do people from all over the world come to Tokyo for the supposedly funky and fetish sort of fun and some the other ‘f’ words?

The things that happen at happening bars in Japan have been happening here for centuries.

Well, I have… This would come as a shock to people other than close friends to see me saying this. People are always quick to judge. They could never see it from my outer appearances. What can I say? Don’t judge a book by its cover,…unless it’s Fifty Shades of Grey. And as many people say, I am one of the most hard working, self-improving, disciplined person you may ever know. But I am also very active, out-going, and I value experience, any kind of experience. This is the one I felt I lacked, even after so many years in Japan.

This year’s golden week, instead of the usual grand plans to travel to international locations, I decided to stay in Tokyo and relax. And of course, convince my partner to visit one of Tokyo’s happening bars to satisfy one of my many curiosities.Happening bars (ハプニングバー。。。。or the other カップル喫茶 (couple coffeeshops)。。。）

I am not one for swinging; loyalty is my strong suit in a relationship but I have to admit that the idea of having kinky sex in front of a crowd turns me on.

It was around 10:07pm at night when we left our place. We hailed the first cab we saw and told the driver the address of one of the bars we found online. It took around 15 minutes to get there. I felt a little uncomfortable as we were reaching the destination, since the driver started to get so perplexed about where we wanted to go in the midst of love hotels.

We walked to the door of the club. There were security cameras and the door was securely shut. Not a sound came out of the door. If I didn’t know it, I would never have guessed that there would be any action going on inside. There was an inter-phone by the door. I rang it. A male voice answered, ‘Are you a member?’

I said no. He then asked if we had IDs, and as soon as we confirmed that we did, the door opened into a small reception area where we were then asked to fill in our information with a proven photo ID. The male receptionist first checked that both of us can speak Japanese as the club does not allow any foreigner in who do not understand the language. We paid the registration fee and entrance fee in cash (as it was cash only). As a couple, a man pays 7,000 yen and a woman pays 2,000 yen registration fee. The entrance fee for both of us together was 8,000 yen. After some explanation of rules such as members are forbidden from asking for contact information of other members and couple members are not allowed to leave with anyone else or interact with single females in the club, he then gave us green wristbands. Green represents couple members, blue represents single males, and pink represents single females. Once all this was done, the other door opened.

A girl in a short blond wig greeted us. She was wearing some kimono-like robe and had distinctive orange eyelashes. She wasn’t a kind of girl I had imagined would be working as a happening bar’s staff. She had a kind face and seemed like a very helpful person. I could imagine her working as a barista in a quiet cafe even with her blond wig and orange lashes. She asked us to take our shoes off and put them in lockers. We were then asked to put away our stuff in another locker including all our phones and valuables. In the same floor, there were rest areas for people to just take a break, drink some water, or call work or home. I started seeing a few men in female’s night gowns, some with their penises hanging out. I looked at my partner and smiled as I knew that this would probably not be anywhere near my imagination.

The staff took us to the next floor. This floor was very dark with some fluorescent lights they use in clubs so we could see our wristbands glowing and my white dress shining in the dark. There was a small reception table where a pantless male staff in a single blue shirt and red tie asked us to show our wristbands to a flashlight machine. The first thing I heard was some sounds of something similar to…cats in heat. Then, as I turned to the left and saw at least four pair of male and females sitting together in a corner, I realized that that was where the sound came from — not the 4am kittens on the roof, but it was the moaning of females in pleasure and some males getting blowjobs. Most people were in costumes such as high school girls with their breasts showing, or as what seemed to be a common attire in this place, men were mostly in tight onesies.

Then, there was a caged corner, a kinbaku (緊縛）or shibari （縛り）corner — which supposedly is the Japanese art of rope tying, originally practiced in order to prevent prisoners from escaping, but now part of BDSM fetish sex. Nowadays, artists create art forms of rope tying, making it look either erotic or beautiful with complex geometrical patterns. This is also the world I was introduced to a year ago from witnessing my partner’s shibari artist friend tying a model up for a very interesting eye-opening photoshoot. There were many patterns already tied on several mannequins with instructions and many whips and chains hanging in the same caged area. At this moment, the staff stressed another important rule of “no drinking and roping’” even if you do know how to properly tie people up, since you can seriously injure someone if you’re not focussed. Sex friends don’t let sex friends tie up friends drunk. There was also a single board on the wall, where you could tie one person to it, by handcuffing their wrists and ankles. The area was as kinky as I wanted it to be.

As I turned to the other corner, I saw the ‘play rooms’. According to the staff, there are some couple only rooms where one or more couples could enter and have sex.

Couples are also allowed to watch or touch other couples but only with permission. Some are mixed rooms for either couples or single males or females members. But we were warned that as a couple, we are to stick together at all times except when we go to the bathroom and we are not allowed to communicate with other single females. “That’s great,” I thought. I am very devoted and supportive as a partner but also can be a jealous, possessive and an unforgiving one. I have always been and I doubt I’ll change much. The staff continued to explain that the closed curtain meant there is ‘a happening’ but we were allowed to peak as much as we’d like without being afraid we’d sustain a serious case of eye stye.

Then, we were led to the last floor. This one was a bar full of people. The staff asked what we wanted for drinks as it was an ‘all you can drink’ system. My partner ordered Malibu coke. I asked for the same thing saying ‘同じでお願いします’ (onaji de onegaishimasu) but apparently she misheard ‘onaji’ for ‘orenji’ (オレンジ = orange). So I got a glass of orange juice—orange juice just as orange as her eyelashes which was…just the right drink for a sex club. As soon as we sat down, the staff left us alone.

There room was full of people dressing in night gowns, a lot of men, again, in female lingerie with some of their brownish avocado like private parts showing. A few guys raised their glasses to me when they thought my partner wasn’t looking. A few winked but stopped after seeing my green wristband. A few simply stared, probably wondering who I was as I was the only one in an office appropriate white dress with a very foreign looking partner next to me. I closed my eyes for a moment and imagined whether I would ever come alone and consider having sex with one of the guys there. My thoughts, even if I died twice and was holding on to my last dearest life, it would probably still be a no.

A few minutes after, the master of the place, a tough but sharp and reliable looking guy in his mid 50s came in. Beside him was a beautifully pregnant staff member in her underwear with see-through lingerie covering her body. They announced a Bingo game. Everyone started to gather around from every floor. We were probably the only foreigners I could see that night. I sat next to a bare chested guy in leopard printed satin robe who kept leaning on me. The Bingo game started. They called the numbers out one by one and I punched in a lot of numbers on my bingo board. I had only one more to punch to win or in Japanese, ’リーチ’ (ree-chi) twice. A few had already won and were called to the front stage to draw a lottery containing their prize. They were asked about their names, their favorite sexual position, and one lady was asked to flash her boobs after about 10 seconds of ‘oppai oppai…’ (breast) roar. Apparently, she happily did so, but only to find out that she didn’t actually win after all. I felt the urge to escape the bingo area as I do not want to go up on stage and being asked questions at or having to come up with a good fake name on the spot. So I nudged my partner and we went straight for the playrooms.

We were the only ones in that floor besides the pant-less counter staff. We asked to use one of the couple only rooms and he gave us condoms–as using condoms is also one of the important rules of this club. The room we went in was very big, decorated by white sofa-liked materials all over the place. It was very clean with many boxes of tissue paper lying around. The staff closed the curtain and left us alone. Everyone was still at the Bingo game but we were ready to Bingo Bongo. Apparently, he was already as hard as freshly cooled lava rock and I was as wet as we could have asked for. We started having intense sex, trying a few different positions. As I was on the floor being penetrated from behind, I heard some noises from people who were probably peaking into the room or opening the curtain. That was certainly a huge arousal there. Soon, I turned and licked his balls and butthole while he was standing and we finished the whole ‘happening’ session in a beautiful manner. We were in a state of absolute bliss, our hormones pumping, an orgasmic glow on our faces. That was the highlight of the night and we were ready to go.

Now, I know what you probably are thinking. No weird orgy, no threesome, no chains, whips or blindfolds? In happening bars, all the aforementioned do not necessarily happen. Nobody is forced to do anything they do not want to do accept abiding by the club’s rules. We were curious, we explored, and we had fun in our own way. And in my not very humble eyes, I am proud to announce that we were the hottest couple in the entire club that night. We were sexy and we knew it (LOL). This night’s experience, for us, was the fun of not knowing what something is about and trying something new together, even in a fetish-y atmosphere–that was the appeal.

I checked the clock and it was 11:40pm. We got dressed, got our stuff from the locker room ,and rang the door bell from the inside. The same reception guy opened the automatic door and waved us goodbye as we were walking out the door.

So would I ever come back? The club has different events each night and I’d like to try a few more things in there, so…yes. But one thing for sure, next time, I would have to be a lot more drunk than a girl who just had a glass of orange juice in a sex club. My curiosity is partially satiated but I’m still thirsty for knowledge. Knowledge is power—or at least a powerful orgasm.

Androniki Christodoulou has spent a decade shooting the photos of Japan’s subculture and its quirky side, with many fine prints of them assembled at the exhibit Tokyo Popat the Foreign Correspondent’s Club of Japan in Hibiya. They are part of a visual diary formed as she walked the city streets and met Tokyo’s people, through work-related assignments or in the course of doing street photography.

Japan’s unique and colorful popular culture was one of the reasons that brought her to Tokyo in 2004, although she originally hails from Greece. She notes: “Tokyo is a place where tradition and new trends exist side by side. There are zones in the city that have specific character and others where everything is possible. From the surface uniformity of salarymen, the mania of Otaku, to the extremes of fetish culture, there is space for everything. Popular culture in Tokyo isn’t something fixed that can be described in one set of photos. It flows and changes all the time.”

RUBBER BRAIN party (in club Mandala). Tokyo. RUBBER BRAIN party is more about the fashion of dressing up in rubber–with a very strict dress code! you don’t get in unless you are dressed up as something–and watching the shows which are quite artistic. In this party, there was Butoh dancing, a comedy show and in the end there were sheets of rubber and a rubber chamber where people would go in wearing a mask to breath with when the air between their bodies and the rubber was extracted. They would stay there for a few seconds until they had their picture taken as a live sculpture, and then an other person would take their place.

In her photos currently on display at the Foreign Correspondent’s Club of Japan, she captures the mood and atmosphere of places and venues that many native Tokyoites never have experienced. She isn’t as entranced by the bondage, fetish and sleazy side of Tokyo as she once was but this exhibition captures some mind-blowing moments of revels past in the murky metropolis. The show ends November 5th. The photos are scattered throughout the club, in the bar, the hall and the sushi restaurant as well. It’s worth the trek–if you’re feeling inspired after the show,, you can even go to Bic Camera when you’re done and get your own camera. The road to Street Photography is just a street away.

Androniki Christodoulou freelances for international media and corporate client as a photographer expanding more into the world of video and multi-media. She has worked with Patrick Galbraith on the counter-culture classic, Otaku Spaces and self-published Underworld about the 2011 tsunami.

Harada Mariru (原田まりる),24, at the time of the picture was named race queen of the year in 2006, but in her room you won’t find fashion makeup and designer shoes. In their place are over 13,000 manga, enough to earn her the title “manga sommelier,” 1,000 limited edition anime DVDs and 7,000 videogames, including dating simulator games.” (from the book OTAKU SPACES, text by Patrick Galbraith.) The original photo used for the cover is on display at the exhibition.